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Oeschinen Lake

This hike has been on my ‘must-hike’ list since last summer, and when I saw Urška writing about recently, it got definitely on my top list of things. The Oeschinen Lake (German: Oeschinensee) is a beautiful lake in the Bernese Overland, Switzerland, east of Kandersteg, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site:

Oeschinensee view from Heuberg

From Kandersteg we took the cable car up to 1682 m:

Kandersteg

Up there the view is already stunning:

Oeschinen Station Panorama (click to enlarge)

From the station we took the Heuberg and up to the Oberbärgli (1978 m), then back to the lake and up to the cable station back again (hike marked with blue dashes below). The hiking time is around 3 hours, but count in about 1 hours for resting, watching and taking pictures :-):

Oeschinensee Hike (Source: Swiss Topo, map.geo.admin.ch)

The first part of the hike is very easy and you see all kind of things tourist probably always expect:

Sheep have found a shelter under the water fall (Balme) (click to find them!):

Sheep Shelter

View back on the trail we came from:

View towards the Blüemlisalp and Rothorn:

Heading towards Oberbärgli and Blüemlisalp and Rothorn (click to enlarge)

Nice view with trees:

Lake and Trees

View to the Fründenhorn (3369 m) and Doldenhorn (3638 m). Down below on the left the trail back to the lake:

Descending down to the lake:

Going down to Oeschinensee (click to enlarge)

Nice creek and stone art on the last part of the hike:

Creek Art

On the way back along the lake there were several ‘Balmen’: overhanging rock areas providing protection. One with some miniature rock art:

Stone Art, water drops from the waterfall in the background

After that, the trail ended up down at the lake, from where we returned to the cable station to head back to Kandersteg. If you ever are around Kandersteg, then consider this beautiful and stunning hike at the Oeschinen Lake.

About Erich Styger

8 thoughts on “Oeschinen Lake”

I’m so glad I finally hiked that one. The weather was good for a hike, but not so good for taking pictures. It was raining in the morning, followed by some blue skies, but then everything was covered with clouds. But the view to the lake was stunning in many ways!

Yes, I’m so grateful to live in Switzerland too. The thing is that somehow after living in a beautiful area, everything seems to be ‘normal’ that way. That’s why I enjoyed to visit other parts of the world (which are beautiful too!), but this re-opened my eyes about the beauty of the area where I live.